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She-Sick Sailors
She-Sick Sailors is the 131st Popeye cartoon, released by Famous Studios in 1944. Plot The plot revolves around Olive Oyl's infatuation with Superman comics. Overhearing her rejection of Popeye as someone who does not measure up to this ideal, Bluto hurriedly shaves off his beard and bursts through her apartment window in a Superman costume, looking somewhat the part as he folds his arms across his wide chest, and dispatches Popeye with a short but potent rabbit punch. Popeye rebounds from this blow and challenges "Superman" to prove that he is indeed the better man. Through the use of clever subterfuge Bluto succeeds in convincing Olive--and half-convincing Popeye--that he does indeed posess superhuman powers. He hurls Olive out her upper-floor window and orders 'Buttermuscles' to 'save the fair damsel.' Popeye desperately races down multiple flights of stairs to try to catch her before she hits the ground, but Bluto dives out the window after Olive and, attaching an umbrella to his cape, floats to Earth with her safely in his arms. The two laugh uproariously at Popeye's failure. Popeye is not won over. Standing conveniently close to a railroad track, Bluto announces another test--to stop a moving train. Bluto holds out one hand and does exactly that, although the audience can see that the train has in fact stopped at a station (clearly marked 'Bridgeport') to let out passengers. When Bluto 'releases' the train, Popeye stands in the middle of the track to try to replicate the feat, but fails miserably. Obviously weakened by the ordeal, he fingers Bluto in the chest and declares that he 'still ain'tsk convinced.' Bluto declares, 'This is something ONLY SUPERMAN can do!' Producing a machine gun, he commands Popeye to 'Pepper me chest with this!' Popeye hesitates, 'B-but that'd be moider!' Bluto responds ominously, 'Yeah, when it's YOUR toin!' We see Bluto momentarily conceal himself behind a tree and insert a bulletproof vest under his shirt, but somehow Popeye and Olive miss this. Bluto crouches, tauntingly sticks out his padded target of a chest, and yells, 'SHOOT!!' Despite misgivings, Popeye does as he is told, and the bullets ricochet off harmlessly. Returning to his ominous tone of voice, Bluto announces 'Now, YOU'RE gonna be the big shot.' As if facing a firing squad, Popeye stands 20 paces from Bluto and awaits his fate with trepidation. Olive tries to intervene but Bluto swipes her out of the way. Bluto fires with a dastardly grin on his face; Popeye cries 'Oooohhh,' and falls to the ground, seemingly mortally wounded. A remorseless Bluto grabs Olive in his arms and starts to run from the scene. The normal demands for a kiss seem to have been dispensed with in this cartoon in the interest of time, and Bluto sets to work at once securing Olive to a railroad track in the best Perils of Pauline tradition. During the intricacies of knot-tying, Bluto's telltale sailor's cap pops out of its place of concealment in his suit, enabling Olive to put two-and-two together and point an accusative finger at the villain and his evil deceit. Meanwhile, we see the fallen Popeye stir to life, and we learn that the 'fatal' bullet had in fact struck the metal spinach can that had been stashed inside Popeye's shirt in front of his heart. Devouring its contents, Popeye is instantly transformed into Super-Popeye, with a red cape on his back and a gold letter 'P' now in evidence on the front of his sailor suit. Using his pipe for jet propulsion, Popeye flies through the sky, giving Bluto and Olive a fireworks show and cause for speculation (a spoof of the Superman 'It's a bird, it's a plane' introduction). He then reappears on the ground and proclaims, 'It's POPEYE the SAILOR!!' Next we see Bluto on a mountaintop, endeavoring to dislodge a huge boulder with a tree trunk for a fulcrum. Straining to his utmost, Bluto sends the stone careening downhill right towards Popeye. But the heroic sailor, hopped-up on spinach, is able to blow the boulder back uphill aimed straight at Bluto. For the first time, we see the look of smug confidence disappear from Bluto's face, replaced by abject fear as he runs for his life. Bluto dives behind a triangular-shaped grove of trees which is then struck head-on by the boulder, another of the frequent allusions in Popeye cartoons to the game of bowling. The trees fall in a jumble, and at last Bluto strikes the ground in their midst, bouncing repeatedly as the allusion shifts to the game of pick-up stix. He finally comes to rest, unconscious in his bogus Superman suit and no longer any kind of a threat. Meanwhile, Popeye struggles to untie Olive from Bluto's secure knots, and, failing to free her as a train approaches, at last succeeds at Bluto's train-stopping challenge by punching the fast-moving locomotive a split-second before it would have crushed her. The train then falls to pieces. Gallery Bluto Grabs Olive.gif Bluto Stops a Train.gif Bluto Massive Target.gif Bluto Gunnin' for Popeye.gif Bluto Boulder Muscles.gif Bluto Rubber-Muscles.gif External links * [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0152393/ She-Sick Sailors] at the Internet Movie Database Category:Popeye's Episodes Category:Famous Studios